Saturday, February 18, 2012

League Report- USTA, SCAT, Bonero, Ultimate Tennis

With the plethora of tennis leagues we have in the area, there's just no way to cover them all in one post, so the Lee County Women's and Men's Leagues will be covered in separate posts. Meanwhile, here's what's happening in some of the other leagues.

After 13 weeks of matches, Park Meadow Diane (PMD) seems to be running away with the Scat League this time around. With 32 points, PMD holds a nine-point lead over its nearest competitor, Heritage Bay (HB). Although a few teams are technically still in the hunt for the top spot, PMD has steadily pulled away from the field. Given PMD’s sweep of HB in their most recent match, and only seven matches left in the season, it appears that the only true race is for second.

Paula and Kerry from Ft Myers Racquet
and Linda and Candy from Plantation

The race for second is considerably closer than the chase for first. Plantation Country Club (PCC) trails HB by just four points, and Naples Bay Resort (NB) is nipping at PCC’s heels by one point. HB has beaten PCC with 2-1 team victories both times they have played, so PCC may need a little help from other teams to claim the second spot.

NB is battling hard to move up in the standings. PCC held off a strong charge by NB in their most recent match, winning 2-1 when Rena Gezzar and Jennifer Hetherington outlasted Courtney Ott and Kathy Rieger 6-4, 5-7. 6-3. Click here to visit the SCAT website.

Shadow Wood holds a two-point lead, 16 – 14, over Bonita Bay, Country Creek and Grandezza. The Colony rounds out the top-five with 12 points.

Members of Shadow Wood Team

In head to head matchups among the top five, Country Creek has beaten three of the top-five teams it has faced, taking out Grandezza, Colony, and the leader, Shadow Wood. Bonita Bay has beaten Country Creek and Colony in the only top-five match-ups it has had. None of the top five faced each other in the latest match on Feb. 14 but Colony gained ground by sweeping Copperleaf, and Country Creek did the same by sweeping Highland Woods.

Ladies of Country Creek

With only four matches left in the Winter Season, every match counts! When Colony hosts Shadow Wood on the 21st, the result will surely impact the close standings among

the top five. Teams like Pelican Sound and Bonita Beach & Tennis are close enough to scramble things amongst the leaders as well, so there is plenty to play for over the next few weeks.

Having Fun @ Grandezza

Deb Graziani- Bonero League Coordinator

If you would like to know more about Bonero, you can click the link to its website above or review my brief description by clicking here and scrolling down to the section on Bonero.

A few years ago when I had the time, I totally enjoyed playing singles in the Ultimate Tennis League, claiming a couple of Division Championships along the way. Other local players, both men and women, have made their mark in Ultimate Tennis Singles as well. This past 2011 Fall Season, local Champions included:

Women’s Singles

Jen Rager, Paseo
3.0 Winner

Laura DeLuca, FMRC
3.5 Winner

Tatiana Reynolds,
Park Meadow
4.0 Winer

Men’s Singles

Jamie Stevensen (2.5) Three Oaks Tennis Center (not pictured)

Willy Hoffman, Pelican Landing
5.0 Winner

Oren Gottesman,
Gateway
3.0 Winner

Kevin Raymond, FMRC
3.5 Winner

Now that I’m spending more time on a keyboard than on the tennis court, my mirror is becoming an enemy, so I need to get some exercise somehow. Lacking the discipline to exercise without immediate gratification, I’m getting back in the Ultimate Tennis mix for the 2012 Spring Season. My first match is to be played between Feb. 25th and March 2nd. Stay tuned for tales of triumph and futility! Ultimate Tennis offers a Mixed Doubles Spring League as well, and the deadline to register is Feb. 28th if you’re interested. Click here to visit the Ultimate Tennis website.

Several USTA Winter Leagues are underway and nearing completion, and the registration for the Spring Season begins this Monday, Feb. 20th. If interested in participating in Lee/Charlotte County USTA Leagues, Kevin Gaines (gainesusta@gmail.com) and Jon McVety (tennisjon@comcast.net) are people to contact. Let’s take a look at where things stand thus far in the Winter Leagues…

Women’s 3.0

Paseo and Fort Myers Racquet Club (FMRC-Michelle) are battling for dominance in this League, both holding 5-1 records, with each winning 3-2 against the other at home. Paseo holds the slight edge, having won two more, and lost two fewer individual matches than FMRC-Michelle. The two meet one more time on March 1st, and chances are that will determine the League Winner.

Women’s 3.5

Village Racquet (VR) of Punta Gorda, led by Karen Cady, proved to be the class of this division, having dominated the competition, and posting a 5-0 record. Even with a loss in its final match against 1-4 Gateway, VR would still finish ahead of the second-place finisher, which at the moment is FMRC, captained by Marcia Simons, with a 4-2 record.

Women’s 4.0

Village Racquet (VR) of Punta Gorda, co-captained by Kathy Kornhaus and Karen Corliss, carries a strong roster of 4.0-rated ladies, and it has shown on the court. VR boasts a 5-1 record, and its only loss was a 1-4 defeat to cross-town rivals Punta Gorda, captained by Suzy Harrison, which sits in a tie for third with a 3-3 record.

Second-place FMRC, captained by Debra White, started the season slowly with two close losses, one to VR and the other to the Karen Fiorillo and Rena Gezzar-led Plantation, which is tied for third. Since then, FMRC has posted three dominant victories and one close one, to taste sweet revenge, against Plantation. FMRC travels to VR this coming week (Thur. 23rd), seeking redemption there are well. With four matches still to go, any of the top three can take this division.

Men’s 3.5

Punta Gorda (PG) holds the edge in this division with a 4-0 record, and Fort Myers Racquet Club (FMRC) is in the hunt at 4-1. The two teams met in the first match of the season, and PG came away with the 3-2 road victory. They will meet again this coming Wednesday (2/22), and unless FMRC can return the favor, it’ll be clear sailing to the Division Title for PG. Cape Coral Yacht Club isn’t completely out of the running, but both PG and FMRC would have to lose all of their remaining matches. Not likely.

Men’s 4.0

With one match to go, Cape Coral Racquet Club (CCRC), co-captained by John Terrell and Scott Dennis, is assured of the top spot in this division. CCRC eked out a 3-2 victory against second-place Dunbar (5-1 record) and posted a dominating 5-0 performance against third-place FMRC- Raymond (4-2 record). Even a loss against third-place Village Racquet (3-3 record) would not dislodge CCRC from first.

Dunbar, led by Ken Savage, and FMRC-Raymond, captained by Kevin Raymond, will play each other in their final match, and the winner of that match will finish second in this very strong league.

Men’s 4.5

Mike Brandon and Scott Lockhart’s Rapallo, playing out of The Club at Rapallo, sits atop the standings with a 4-2 record, but has split matches with third-place Cypress Lake (CL), which sits at 3-3, and fourth-place Three Oaks (TO), which sits at 2-4. Only its dominance of second-place (3-3 record) Village Racquet (VR), led by Darin Schultz and Ken Ebersole (winning 9/10 individual matches), sets Rapallo apart from the competition.

Cypress, co-captained by Peter Redpath and Brad Nash, lost to VR twice or would be tied for second. Had TO, led by Fred Hindle, beaten CL in their match up this past week, it would have held the second-place edge, having split with all three teams.

With each team having at least one match to play against every other team in this four-team scrum, there’s no telling which team will emerge on top. Given the parity of this league, it looks like we’ll have to wait until the final match has been played to unscramble this one.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search This Blog

Welcome!

Nice of you to drop in! You are likely to find just about anything related to tennis in this blog, but I will try to make whatever you find here informative, entertaining, and/or thought provoking.

Generally the blogs will be about events, but you might find some random thoughts and tennis tips as well. Hope you enjoy the time you spend here. If you have a good time, become a follower and pass on the link to anyone who might enjoy it as well.

Please forgive any funky appearances. I haven't yet mastered the editor for this blog site so I get some interesting formatting.

Comments, corrections and critiques are always welcome, and if you have photos you would like included please email them to taniles13@yahoo.com. Thanks! T. A.

See Larger Photos

If you would like a clearer view of any photo, click on it. That should enlarge the photo and bring up a slideshow of photos contained in the blog you're reading.